Main Street Promenade gets final OK

Barbara Sherlock, Tribune staff reporterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

The Naperville City Council recently approved the final plans for the Main Street Promenade, a commercial and residential development slated for a transitional area between downtown businesses and residential neighborhoods.

Bounded by Webster and Main Streets and Van Buren and Benton Avenues, the planned development is to include two four-story condominium buildings with a total of 30 units and a three-story commercial building.

In response to neighbors' objections, developer Dwight Yackley scaled back his initial proposal of five stories and 40 units in the condos. The adjustment was included in the preliminary plat and rezoning of the 2.29-acre site approved by the council in March.

The commercial side is to be completed by fall 2003, with the residential portion to be completed sometime later.

The final plans of the $40 million project call for Yackley and the city to share the costs for improvements to the water main to Van Buren and for storm-water management. The council previously agreed to waive the requirement for off-street parking for businesses in the development, and Yackley agreed to pay the city $95,000 to buy into a downtown special service area established for parking decks.

At the City Council meeting held last week, John R. Wieser, an attorney representing Don Breed, who owns a small commercial site along the eastern tip of the project area, told council members that his client would be ordering a survey of the project's boundaries. Wieser said his client is concerned that the developer may have relied on old plat maps and that the project might encroach on Breed's property by several feet, possibly affecting his easement rights.

Council member Richard Furstenau objected to the project moving forward before the survey is completed.

"We should know and verify the boundary before we overlap on this man's property," Furstenau said.

When city staff offered to look into the matter, council member Sam Macrane objected, calling it a "private enterprise."

Furstenau often took issue with other council members while the project was being discussed at last week's meeting. Early on he raised questions about allowing an expensive development to go forward with a streetscape never approved by the council.

But staffers said that the streetscape plan so far is conceptual and the council will have the final say on it.

Furstenau later objected that Macrane, acting as mayor pro tem in the absence of Mayor George Pradel, had begun the voting without allowing for extra comments. Furstenau contended that questions remained unanswered about the project's affect on local school enrollment.

But council member John Rosanova corrected Furstenau, telling him, "If you have a problem with [Macrane's] conduct, it should be addressed during new-business part of the meeting."

Furstenau and council member Gary von Behren voted against approving the final plans. Von Behren said the developer had not "fully evaluated" the impact on School District 203.